Court told how finance boss made a billion in two years

Nairobi County Chief Finance Officer Jimmy Kiamba appearing before Public Accounts Committee in May 6. He is among the senior officers to be investigated over financial mismanagement and loss of county assets. [PHOTO: JAMES MWANGI/STANDARD]

A former Nairobi county finance officer’s bank account rose from Sh1 million to Sh1.02 billion in two years, a court has been told.

The lead investigator in the graft investigation against Jimmy Kiamba yesterday told an anti-corruption court the suspect would either deposit cash personally or send his juniors.

At one point, Mr Kiamba is said to have deposited Sh7.4 million.

The Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) told the court it received intelligence that Kiamba was making inexplicably huge cash deposits in his bank accounts.

It then tasked its top investigator, James Kariuki, to probe the deposits.

Yesterday, Mr Kariuki told the court he tracked down Kiamba’s eight bank accounts and unearthed a number of suspect cash deposits.

Kariuki told court that Kiamba used his deputy, Stephen Agogo, Barnabas Oigo, a security officer with the county, Nancy Waithera, then the head of budget, and Ambrose Mwania, a clerical officer, to make huge deposits in his accounts.

He also used to send his driver Joseph Mwaura and a Mr Paul Wambua.

One account

The court heard that on November 21, 2013, Kiamba personally deposited Sh3 million in one of his bank accounts.

The following day, on November 22, he sent Wambua to deposit Sh2.7 million.

On November 25, 2013, the court heard that Wambua first deposited Sh2 million and Sh1 million later in the day.

On September 1, 2014, Oigo was said to have deposited Sh900,000. The following day he again deposited Sh1.4 million.

On September 3, 2014, Oigo again deposited Sh770,000 in cash. The next day, he deposited Sh6 million.

Later, on October 16, the same year, Kiamba is said to have deposited Sh7.4 million.

Kairuki told the court he established that Kiamba had amassed Sh1.057 billion spread in his bank accounts.

He testified that he checked Kiamba’s declarations filed before the Public Service Commission (PSC).

According to Kariuki, the suspect disclosed to PSC that in 2007 his annual income was Sh831,840. He also indicated that he owned a plot in Athi River valued at Sh400,000 and a car worth Sh600,000.

In total, the court heard, Kiamba’s assets were worth Sh1 million.

The second declaration, according to the investigator, was made in 2009 in which Kiamba declared that he earned Sh1 million salary, had a rental income worth Sh600,000, a rental house worth Sh2.7 million and a Toyota RAV 4 which he estimated to be worth Sh1.2 million.

The court heard that in 2011, Kiamba declared an income of Sh95 million, fuel sales worth Sh60 million and a salary of Sh3 million.

The investigator told the court Kiamba’s Sh1.6 million income rose to Sh160 million in a span of two years.

It also emerged that Kiamba then declared that he had a property worth Sh65 million in 2013 and that he had taken a Sh180 million bank mortgage to buy a house in Muthaiga.

Asset worth

In terms of assets, the court heard that Kiamba was worth Sh420 million while his earlier declaration indicated he was worth Sh3.9 million.

Although Kiamba declared that he had a mortgage worth Sh180 million in 2013, documents from the mortgage bank indicated that the loan was given a year after, in 2014.

“There is no way he would have declared a facility in 2013 and the facility be applied for in 2014. He could not have declared what he did not have,” testified Kariuki.

According to Kariuki, the Kiamba’s known salary income for five years, between August 2009 and February 2015, was Sh5.4 million.

He said in 2007, documents filed by Kiamba revealed that his net worth was Sh1.7 million. The court heard that in 2009, this had risen to Sh4.8 million. By 2013, he was worth an estimated to Sh401 million.